Gurjanopsis australis gen. nov., sp nov., a new epibenthic deep-sea munnopsid (Crustacea, Isopoda, Munnopsidae) from the Weddell Sea, Southern Ocean

A new epibenthic deep-sea genus of Munnopsidae, Gurjanopsis gen. nov., is erected for Munneurycope incisa (Gurjanova, 1946) from the Arctic deep sea and Guijanopsis australis sp. nov., described from the Weddell Sea, Southern Ocean. The new genus is distinguished by pleotelson broader than the ambulosome, rectangular in dorsal view, with a deep posteromedial notch comprising the anus and the small slender uropods; natasome is large inflated, with thin cuticle; pereonite 7 is longest, as long as pereonites 5 and 6 together. The basis of pereopod I is twice as long and as wide as bases of pereopods 2-4; pereopod 7 differs from pereopods 6 and 7 by the stout long distoventral seta and the dorsal row of plumose setae on ischium and the stout merus. The male pleopods 1 and 2 do not operculate the pleopodal cavity completely; pleopod 3 has an enlarged exopod, 1.5 longer than pleopod 2. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.